My first hi-fi (Wharfedale Linton) was from Comet!
For some 15 years my parents had Cometās own Solavox speakers. A couple of years ago I visited and music was playing. It sounded absolutely terrible - not just off but truly awful. I removed a speaker grille and found that the driver surrounds had rotted away and were now 1 inch of dust in each cabinet. They were still listening!
Same here. A Philips Music Centre with separate Philips cassette deck. I passed on the quadraphonic option.
Remember that Solavox stuff - always on special offer !
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As in dealer, yes! My first real turntable in the shape of an Arison RD80 and Father in Law with his Akai 4000 reel to reel. Quite a shop back in those days. I think de got is QUAD tuner and amplifiers from them nor to forget the Delestion 44! They were the first speakers Iād ever heard.
I have been a customer of The Sound Organisation in York for 28 years now.
Here is an extract of their history from their website:
Our history - the early years.
In the very beginning The Sound Organisation was started down in Southwark in London. Both Hamish and Roger Macer, the original founders, had earned their HiFi spurs at Grahams HiFi in Islington.
But in 1981, after two fruitful years at Grahams, Roger left followed a year later by Hamish and together they to helped create The Sound Organisation in large rented premises near London Bridge together with sleeping partner, Andre Slezak. Roger was a whirl of determined activity, not only a great salesman but also inventive, and he soon manufactured the first SO product, The Sound Organisation Turntable Table. Hamish soon discovered that using the SO Table under a Linn Sondek LP12 Turntable gave it a better, clearer sound. A small industry was accidently born.
Hamish left the London shop in late 1984 and started here in York on Christmas Eve of that year in a small rented shop at 36 Gillygate.
He was pleased to sell a stylus brush that day, the shopās very first sale, closed up and left for the South Coast and the Christmas Holidays.
Weāve had a long journey from those days. Back in 1985 the turntable was still making the best music and Linnās LP12 was king. But soon CD Players, then seen by this shop as a poor substitute for the record player was fast gaining popularity for itās great convenience, āThe Perfect Sound Foreverā as Philips famous catchphrase promised. And sales of CD players quickly overhauled those of record players. At that time, many customers sold their turntable and records (sometimes to their later regret).
Back then, we were selling most of the brands we still stock today: Linn, Naim, Rega, Arcam, Denon together with others that we no longer carry: Roksan, Onix, Micromega, Nakamichi, NAD & Kef amongst others. Bowers and Wilkins (B&W) was a later and welcome addition.
David Prickett, then a lad of 19, joined the shop in 1985, leaving again to finish his degree in Electronics and then re-joined us. Maggie Brown, then joined the fray in 1988. Bob Priestley joined us in 1996 and John Ingamells, our engineer, in 2000. Matthew, Hamishās son, joined the company in 2014 to take over the role of bookkeeper from Maggie.
Old staff members we remember with affection include David Allanson, David Hallaways who later joined Rega as UK Sales manager, David Ellwood, Adrian Lightly, Simon Sharrock, James Pickering and Alex Benson - all of whom we are still in contact with.
We moved shop in 1987 to larger premises at 16 Gillygate to accommodate the book keeping department with Maggie as Commander in Chief, and also to provide valuable extra storage space.
Then in 1990, a big move, when we purchased and re-furbished the much larger 2 Gillygate, where we remain until this day.
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The Linton (bsr) deck was so awful in 1975 I replaced it with my first real hi-fi deck - an acoustic research deck from Audio Projects in Leeds. Is that dealer still there?
Do you mean Adventures in HiFi ? in Chester
No not Adventures in Hifi as theyāre still running.
The dealer used be on the main road into Chester if you were coming from the East . Iām going to guess at Audio Excellence as I remember they had a branch in Cardiff too.
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What year is the list? I bought from Audio Counsel in 90s but they were in Cheadle not Oldham. One day the shop changed its name and a new Audio Counsel opened 100 yards away. Some time later that shop moved to Diggle, I think ā¦
Possibly Acoustica? Still running but I think may have changed hands.
Always used Adventures in HiFi myself, great service from Rob who runs it.
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That does sound like Acoustica. We stayed just up the road from the shop a few years back when we were up in Chester for a wedding. Nipped in, as you do, and came out with a Naim box to take home with meā¦
I thought the 42XO was just one of those special builds. Didnāt realise it was on the retail list. Interesting bit of history 
No, I use Acoustica now.
This is going back to 2005 before I went to Acoustica. As said, theyāre no longer there now.
It was Audio Excellence. When it closed Rob opened Adventures in Hi Fi. He has since moved but still in Chester. A good dealer.
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Thanks for confirming it was Audio Excellence Dan. Good to hear that it carried on through somebody else.
Cheers, Rack.
Interesting. Audio Excellence (originally Cardiff) seemed to expand quite quickly and then joined forces with Audio-T. Iām assuming they closed some of the shops then ?
Thats what I meant !!!
Same property just the wrong name 
As a matter of interest, I was born and brought up, till I married and moved out of my parents house aged 25, just round the corner from Acoustica
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I bought my first Naim gear from Graham at Basically Sound, mid 90ās if I recall correctly. They are still running although under different ownership and a different location but Graham is still there and still under the name of Basically Sound - hope that doesnāt make it sound like Triggers broom!
Great to have this level of continuity and service for such a long time.
Gary
I do notice that my dealer, who claims to have been a naim dealer since " day dot" has a different name in 1982 to 1994/now. But is still at the same address, so that sort of counts. Still the same owner of the business from early 70s too!
Ah, I get you now! I couldāve sworn the last time I went into Chester using that route, I couldnāt see any hifi shop but then I was probably looking for the old Audio Excellence signage. 
Using Acoustica is a slightly different route into Chester but a bit easier.
Might need to pay them a visit soon but thatās another storyā¦